Pick Up The Pieces
by ThinAsADime
Summary: Draco and Hermione have had a hard time. Hermione is stressed, and Draco is falling in love. Hermione is shy, and Draco, well, isn't.


**Author's Note: **I do not own Harry Potter or any characters related to the lovely childhood I had because of the novels and movies. I realize the ending of this story is silly; it's supposed to be. I had to do something good for poor, depressed Hermione. Thank you so much for reading! ^_^

**DMHG**

Hermione Granger was facedown, asleep on the bed. Her hair was all over the place, and her clothes hadn't been changed for days. And to top it all off, she was snoring loudly and drooling.

"Bloody Granger," Malfoy said, "how could someone sleep like that?" He shut their shared room door behind him and headed toward the small bathroom. It was just a quick rest, and he knew how badly she had needed sleep, but he didn't know she would be able to close her eyes so quickly wrapped up in that grime.

Hermione woke up to the door shutting rather loudly. She sat up and rubbed her head, feeling the pounding of a headache hard behind her eyes. She groaned and tried to sleep again, but her over-exhaustion made it nearly impossible. So, she went into the little kitchen of the tiny apartment she and Draco had shared for the past few months for a glass of water. They were only there on a few occasions together, most of the time they were alone, leaving notes and in Hermione's case, dishes of food for one another. She never wanted Draco to be hungry. After the Dark Lord fell, Draco teamed up with her to find and lock up all of the Death Eaters who had gone into hiding. It was not an easy task, and it exhausted both of them to the core. Their last target had been especially difficult and required the two of them to actually work together.

She carried her water back to the small room and sipped it, keeping her eyes glued closed as she sat on the bed. The light bothered her migraines, but she didn't want to have to move again. When she had finally gotten comfortable, the door opened and in stepped Draco Malfoy. He was in his nice dress pants, but his chest was bare, and she could see where the moisture from the shower still clung to his skin. He glanced over at the bed, expecting her to still be drooling like a child, but instead she was staring back at him.

For the first time, he saw the exhaustion in her face, masked well by her strength. He saw the deep concentration in her eyes, and he saw the mess of curls he had grown to love unwound by the stress, a mess on top of her head. He saw how much she really just needed a hug, and the tears hidden beneath her eyes. Under her skin, he saw that she was just a woman, searching, waiting, wanting. He hoped she couldn't see any of the weaknesses he was harboring as he studied her for those few seconds.

"Mione, what are you doing up?" He asked as he thumbed at his suit jackets in their tiny closet.

"When you left, the door woke me up. I have a migrane."

He pulled his black turtle neck on and then added the suit jacket over the top of it. "Do you want me to do a spell or something?"

"No, no, I took muggle pills with my water, thanks."

"You know those never work," Draco said, reaching for his wand. His desire to touch her was so great that when he sat next to her on the bed, he immediately took her face in his hands. He felt her skin flush warm under his touch and suddenly his heart sped up. He took a deep breath and pressed his wand to her temple, extracting the headache from her skull. She sighed.

"That's a wonderful spell, you'll have to teach it to me sometime. I get headaches quite frequently." She looked into his eyes for a second and quickly her eyes darted from his. He saw the heat there, the want he knew she must have had for him. He resisted the urge to speak and instead leaned forward, his heart rate increasing with each centimeter. When their lips were about to touch, her eyes closed. He suddenly coughed and backed up from her face.

"Sure, maybe next time," he said, rising from the bed. He reached for the doorknob and took another breath. "Granger?"

"Hmm?" she asked, nervously playing with her lips.

"Go shower. You smell rancid."

Her face flushed red for an entirely different reason and she screeched his name. "How dare you say that to me?" She asked.

He shut the door behind him and smirked, his heart still on fire.

Despite seeming insulted, she passed through the living room toward the bathroom a few seconds after he had settled onto the couch.

She stepped out of the bathroom, toweling her hair. Her jeans clung to her perfect curves and her shirt stuck to her heavenly too. He caught his gaze lingering on her and so had she, because she suddenly snipped, "What?"

Draco's eyes traveled back up from her hips to her eyes. "Nothing. What are you making for dinner, Granger?"

She searched the cupboards. "Well, I suppose all we have is alfredo and peas. Will that do?"

"Sure. You go right ahead and make that while I watch this movie."

"What movie?" she asked, turning on the stove.

"Some muggle movie called Chasing Amy. It's quite good."

"Oh, yeah, I've seen that before."

She sat down next to Draco as she waited for the water on the stove to boil. He reached over and took her hand nonchalantly.

She jumped a little at the contact, her heart racing. "Draco, I-"

"So, they're going to end up together, right?"

"What?" Hermione asked, confused. "Who?"

"Holden and Alyssa. On the movie, you know."

"Oh," Hermione uttered, feeling the weight of his hand in hers and memorizing each detail and imperfection of his fingers, "yes, they do."

"That's good. I wanted them together." He looked at Hermione and smirked.

"Draco Malfoy, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were implying something else entirely," Hermione quipped, smirking too.

"Oh, not at all, Mione."

She laughed but then suddenly realized she had forgotten the boiling water on the stovetop.

**DMHG**

When it was time for bed, Hermione threw on a tank top and some shorts before crawling into bed. She shut off all the lights, minus the small night light next to the head of her bed, and closed her eyes to the evening.

Draco opened the door slowly. "Granger. Move over. I'm coming in."

"What?" Hermione asked, flinging her eyes open and pulling the blankets tight around her body.

"You don't expect me to sleep on the couch, do you?"

"Um, well, yeah. It's your turn."

"We only rotate when one of us has a difficult mission the next day. Come on, we have to go together in a few days, what's it going to hurt if we lie in the same bed?"

Hermione wondered if he could hear the pounding in her chest. "Well… alright." Hermione was most certainly not one to argue with logic, and them sharing the comfortable bed _was _rather logical.

Draco climbed into bed next to her and she rolled onto her side, facing away from him. He did the same and smiled into the dark. She yawned.

When Hermione woke up, Draco had his hand on her stomach. She stiffened, completely frozen in excitement and fear of waking him up. She studied his features and a soft smile graced her lips. She fought for a long while but finally gave into the urge to kiss his cheek. She continued to stare at him for a while, taking in how his hair fell perfectly on his face and how his nose curved. She bit her lip to hold back another smile when suddenly Draco said, his eyes still closed, "Have you stared at me long enough, Granger?" He smiled and she gasped.

"How long have you been awake?" She asked, embarrassed.

He opened his eyes and sat up, stretching. "Well, long enough to know you kissed me."

She buried her face in her hands, but he grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands away, pressing his mouth to hers softly.

Hermione gasped but then relaxed into the kiss. Draco wound his hands around her waist, deepening the kiss simply by pulling her even closer. She made a small noise and he tightened his grip, enjoying it thoroughly.

When they released each other for air, Draco stood up. "I'll go make breakfast, go brush your teeth Morning Breath." Hermione's eyes widened as she looked at him. He burst into laughter. "I'm only kidding about the morning breath thing, Mione."

"Oh," she said, "in that case…" She jumped to her feet and captured his mouth in a kiss one more time. Draco felt the heart inside his chest explode when she groaned into the kiss, gripping him harshly. He pushed back.

"Granger, it's time for me to go make breakfast."

She laughed. "Yeah, okay Malfoy."

He smirked and kissed her quickly. "That's it! Go read, or whatever you girls do."

She nodded. "Make me something delicious, okay?"

"Okay."

Twenty minutes later Draco put the finishing touches on the lovely breakfast he had made for Hermione. "Miiiiione, come on out!" he called.

When Hermione walked out and found Draco sprawled across the table, almost completely naked and covered in assorted fruits, she nearly melted into the ground.

"Delicious enough for you, love?" he asked with a wink.

Hermione turned a bright shade of red, but nodded anyway. "I think this will taste just fine."


End file.
